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Primer Queen rides again! A 1974 Super and a clueless owner.
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 2:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's been two and a half weeks and the mechanic has only put 3 hours into it.

He soaked the carb a bunch of times, and now it "runs great." Hydrocarbons are down, but the CO2 is extremely high. He re-adjusted everything--"timing advance and retard, valves, points, etc.",-- and he said he'd take it to the DMV on Monday.

Well, its Tuesday! And I get there to hear that he couldn't make it to the DMV yesterday. And he couldn't make it today! Hey, he said last Tuesday that he was going to adjust the valves, and it took him until Friday to do it. He said that it was a "project car" and to give him time. Yeah, she is a project car...BUT SHE'S MY PROJECT CAR.

And there she sits, in the parking lot, on one flat foot, window rolled down, and keys on the passenger seat.

I asked about the engine tin, and he talked to me like an idiot. "The air flows into the engine. That's how the car cools itself. It doesn't have a radiator. When you drive, the air will still flow into the engine." Oh really, I hadn't noticed! Rolling Eyes

On top of this, I still will have to take her to a tire shop because he thinks that it is a broken valve stem that's causing the flat. If I go back tonight, and the window is still rolled down and the keys are still on the seat...I'm taking the damn thing to the DMV myself. Even if it doesn't pass, it still qualifies for the exemption because I will have spent well over the $75 required.

I am so pissed off. Every time I go, he tells me to give him time, don't rush him...If he completed all of his cars at this speed, I would wonder just how he gets any business! Its the little things that get me. Just the fact that he couldn't even roll up the damn window. Ok, I know she isn't the pristine baby blue '74 Super Beetle that he showed me in the shop, but seriously? I noticed that now the gas filler door wont even close, which means he messed with the tank and didn't put it back in right. I am to my limit with this guy. We gave him until last Friday to have the car done, because that's when my dad was leaving. Its Tuesday and I have no hopes that it'll be done in the next two weeks. This is beyond ridiculous. Please don't tell me that this is normal. I don't care that he has to "find the problem", he said he was going to adjust the valves on TUESDAY, and it took him until FRIDAY to actually do it. Takes how long? Hour tops? I've got someone waiting to buy the Civic and she's getting pretty pissed about this wait. What else is he going to do to the car that I can't?

So yeah. I go back tonight, and the window is down, she is gone tomorrow. I'll pay my money, but I am not going to play along with this.

Tim Donahoe wrote:
Your situation is fairly common. You just have to get the bugs worked out.

I'm starting to see that! It took the mechanic two or three times of soaking the carb to get the car to run. He says "great", but I'll be the judge of that.

vamram wrote:
Are you smelling burning oil from your engine bay? Your smoking engine could just be badly-placed valve cover gaskets. Or you could have left the cap off of the oil filler....

Definitely didn't leave the cap off the oil filler. Badly placed valve cover gaskets sounds about right. Might be an oil leak somewhere, according to the mechanic, though the way he put it when he said we would have to see made it sound months in the future before he touched it.
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Tim Donahoe
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 3:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does your mechanic have a name badge that says "Doofy"?

I can't imagine why one would soak the carburetor 2 or 3 times. That's just plain bullshit.

This guy doesn't know what he's doing.

Tim
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v68dub
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 4:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cut your losses and get your car towed outta there. I would go ballistic if my car was there for that long for simple things like that. I think you would have saved a lot of money as well if you just caroused through youtube. They have everything on there!
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 4:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tim Donahoe wrote:
Does your mechanic have a name badge that says "Doofy"?

I can't imagine why one would soak the carburetor 2 or 3 times. That's just plain bullshit.

This guy doesn't know what he's doing.

Tim


He also said not to trust the Samba, so I'm guessing this is why?

He has a '69 and he [I guess] is the go-to mechanic for the original owner of the really nice '74, so I would think he would know what he was doing. At least, I would hope so.



I went back and it was put away, at the least I couldn't see it. Still considering going tomorrow and asking for my car back. Or offering to drive it to the DMV for the oh-so busy mechanic o' mine. Who knows, it could already be in specs and we wouldn't ever know!

By the way, the DMV is but a minute down the road from the place. Goddamn! Just take it during your lunch break or something! Eat lunch while you wait in the inspection line! Something! Anything!
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 4:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

v68dub wrote:
Cut your losses and get your car towed outta there. I would go ballistic if my car was there for that long for simple things like that. I think you would have saved a lot of money as well if you just caroused through youtube. They have everything on there!


Towed? Ha! He HAS THE THING RUNNING. He said it runs great. I am probably going to go tomorrow and just driiiive it away. Wouldn't be too hard, considering the doors are unlocked and the keys on the seat! Even if it doesn't pass, I can get the exemption. Believe me, I am very very very close to going ballistic.

Enraged Beetle Owner wrote:
GEE, I SEE YOUR MECHANIC IS A BIT TOO BUSY TO WORK ON MY CAR. MAYBE I SHOULD TAKE IT TO SOMEONE WHO HAS TIME TO GET PAID TO WORK ON MY CAR.


$80/hour and he wont even work on it!
There are spots of rust that I need to touch up on before they spread and I cant very well do that because who knows when I'm getting the car back?

The answer is tomorrow because no, I am not putting up with this.
I just keep replaying the way he said everything and it just pisses me off more and more.
My car is not your project, to get to whenever you have time.
I am a customer. I am paying you money. If you were in a restaurant and your waitress took her sweet sweet time, would you stay? No!
I know my dad went through a lot to find someone who works on beetles and who came recommended [how in the hell did that happen] and to get a spot for the car, but I'm the one that's paying for this, and I find it ridiculous.


And the fact that he messed with the gas tank [I guess when he was blowing air through the lines] and put it back in wrong. I need him to fix that because I can't move the gas tank by myself. But how can I get him to fix that if he won't even take the car to the DMV?
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iowegian Premium Member
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 6:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Settle down, Queenie----------it's not like the guy pissed in your Vichyssoise or something. Wink
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

iowegian wrote:
Settle down, Queenie----------it's not like the guy pissed in your Vichyssoise or something. Wink


Yuh, he only took my money for cracking the filler neck and not fixing the stalling problem. Very Happy Nothing I should be mad about!

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If you take a turn too hard, gas just spills riiight out and flows down the side. The entire trunk now reeks of gasoline, and it flows right into the interior. Just driving around town is enough to bring on a crippling gas fume headache!

I think it just needs a new carb. It runs slightly better, but it still stalls out a lot. But hey, with all that money I spent on the mechanic, I qualified for the exemption, so now I've got tags!

Its been raining and is supposed to rain all week, so I think I'm going to put her in the garage and work on all the rust that is cropping up.

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If I ever buy a beetle again, I will make sure to look everywhere for rust. I didn't even notice this until now.

This rust
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revealed itself to be a lot worse
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so I'm probably going to rip up the carpet to make sure I get it all.

I took it to a tire shop to fix the valve stem, so now the tire doesn't go flat, but I will definitely need four new tires as they are all dry rotted!

I am going to need fifty cans of that rusty primer stuff. Laughing
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Tim Donahoe
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 10:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That rubber seal-neck is not the cause of any fuel leak. That seal's function is merely to stop vibration. Look elsewhere for the leak.

Tim
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I got to work fine, but seven hours later and she gave up on me.

The engine sounded absolutely terrible, like it was misfiring all over the place. There were little drops in power while I was driving it. And then this horrid clacking noise started up. It went away but came back worse. I think the fan is hitting the fan shroud. I was five minutes away from my house and she couldn't even make that. I'm going to go back tomorrow and mess with the fan shroud to see if it is the case.
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 10:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So apparently I threw a rod.

I'm going to have to rebuild the engine, and I can't even use the garage. I might as well tear her down completely and get new everythings, and remove all the rust. My daily driver has turned project car in a matter of a day. Problem is, I'm not really in a good position to support a project car. I don't even have a daily driver thats mine, being as I just sold the Honda. Laughing Maan I really did make a big mistake here! But I'll be damned if I sell her and I refuse to let her rot away. I'm gonna make it work somehow!
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 1:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Two new tires and a busted engine. Very Happy

My new plan of attack--take apart everything.

Like I said before--If I'm going to have her under for the engine, I might as well tackle ALL the problems.

By taking out everything, I can get all of the rust, and can get her patched where needed and painted.

I can also get some of the more annoying things out of the way, like the frozen passenger side door lock, unmovable drivers side vent window, and leaky crumbly seals. Probably mess with the tranny or clutch some as I had problems shifting into first gear [as in, I COULD NOT get into first without pushing hard, almost like it wasn't even there].

I think the best part of the last few days was pushing her from a parking spot by the street, uphill, to a spot in the front of the restaurant so she'd show up on the cameras! Laughing Still didn't seem to help because I saw footprints on the fenders. One thing about primer is that no matter what you do, you cannot get spots of anything off. So our handprints are still on the hood and fenders! For some reason though everybody tells me that they like the color and I should keep it that way. Rolling Eyes I've got to admit black looks pretty nice. But I'm a stickler for red beetles [the first one I looked at was an absolutely beautiful shade of red] so maybe red with a bit of black? Who knows! The state of the car is much more of a priority than the color.

My two big problems--where can I keep her and what can I daily drive. I need an auto shop that lets me keep my car in a bay or something and work on it, but I'm being told that things like that don't exist. Confused What about Christine? Arnie kept Christine at a garage and worked on her! I wouldn't think that things like that would go the way of the drive in movie theaters. There is a shop on base but I'm not sure if I can keep my car there for months. My own garage would be ideal but I kinda don't have the liberty to use it despite said garage containing no cars.
As for the second issue--I'm going to get something that can tow. Laughing
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EXJAY
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 3:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hang in there, that's a good car you got there.
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 5:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Soooooo
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this is what I found when taking the valve cover off the left side. Then these immediately flung out
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so we knew right away we had found our problem.
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Pushrod decided it didn't want to stay in the engine.
I am not an experienced mechanic [obviously!] but that doesn't look...too bad? I mean, it didn't puncture through anything. I still am going to take the car and engine apart regardless. But it doesn't seem like it busted a hole through anything besides my heart. Laughing Although the unmoving rocker arm probably has some deeper implications--if I'm not mistaken, that's the...intake for the third cylinder. Confused This is gonna be a loooooooong rebuild.
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 6:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The problem isn't one of the push rod falling out of place, rather, it's one of the intake valve turning into a two piece affair... in common parlance, you've swallowed a valve. When you remove the head on that side you'll find part of the valve in the combustion chamber, if you're terribly lucky it won't have punched a hole through the piston top. At a minimum expect to replace that head along with the piston and cylinder.
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 12:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Your bug is actually in pretty decent shape. I wish mine were in as good.
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 8:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Small update--I have been allowed use of the garage! I don't know what made her change her mind but I am just going to go with it. I'm hoping she won't regret it when she walks out one day and the bug is in pieces. Laughing I just have to wait till after Christmas and then we can pull--er, push-- the beetle into the garage.
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2015 7:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

After almost half a year of hiatus, work will finally be done!

The garage fell through, so she's been sitting outside and quietly rusting. A couple of months ago we got some new people in our neighborhood. The guy works on classic cars (he's got a 55 chevy in his driveway right now) and turns out he's worked on a beetle before too! I believe he said it was a '68 with a motor similar to mine. Yesterday he came over and took the pushrod out. We found metal shavings all on it so it doesn't seem to be as clean as I first thought. Saturday he is going to remove the head, and we will see how bad she's hurt.

This is all just a step closer to getting her back on the road! Rust is definitely coming in to the picture, the pans now have some surface rust and he seemed a bit concerned for my heater channels. I'm probably going to take out the carpeting as well because there is rust in the interior as well--hopefully its not cancerous. May have to befriend someone who can patch it! Very Happy

Once she's mechanically sound, perhaps I'll get to the paint side of things. She can't be the primer queen forever!
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PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2015 5:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry to hear the bad luck. Hope it wasn't the previous guy you had working on it revving the piss out of it fatiguing the springs and other internals. No way to prove it so moot point at this time.

Now you can build your engine how you want it and take care of all that stuff that bugs you. Don't lose hope, but look forward to the journey and hopefully you will get to feel the accomplishment of knowing your beetle inside and out.
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Primer Queen
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PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 6:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Chochobeef wrote:
Sorry to hear the bad luck. Hope it wasn't the previous guy you had working on it revving the piss out of it fatiguing the springs and other internals. No way to prove it so moot point at this time.

Now you can build your engine how you want it and take care of all that stuff that bugs you. Don't lose hope, but look forward to the journey and hopefully you will get to feel the accomplishment of knowing your beetle inside and out.


I am looking forward to the project! The day she sets out on that road from my help will be great. Very Happy But its looking to be a bit longer than just fixing the engine! Turns out my heater channels were 100000000 times worse than I thought. Leaving her outside during the winter proooobably was the stupidest idea but I really didn't have another option. There are holes all through them. The frame head is a rusted mess, the pans are starting to have some surface rust, and literally anything on the underside has some degree of rust. The guy knows what he's talking about--he's fixed up over 40 classic cars, and boy oh boy can he fix them, he's got an absolutely beautiful Nova-- and he said that its not savable in that aspect. The body is fine, the engine is good aside from the valve--but the framework would require so much patching that there really isn't a point, unless I knew how to do that and could work on it.

So he told me my options; sell it as scrap/project, maybe get a grand out of her if I'm lucky, or take it as my own project.

I already knew my answer.

I'm too stubborn to let her die! This was a dream I've had since I was a kid, and to let go of that is just giving up.

So begins the start of a long project. I will drop the engine soon, hopefully within the month. I've got the go for keeping it in the garage. I will then disassemble her bit by bit, sanding off any rust on the body and getting each piece painted so they wont rust out again. There are so so many little things wrong with this car. Originally the guy offered to buy it off of me, but he definitely retracted his offer once he saw the issues. I will need a whole new chassis! Maybe I'll see about getting one from Mexico. Laughing This will become a restomod. Stock is beautiful, but I need a bit more practicality and maybe some flair, who knows. And I doubt a lot is original on this car anyways.

This wont be done right away. I've got a Celica that needs a new catalytic converter ASAP or else it wont pass inspection for the third time and I wont be able to get any more temp tags. Wink I don't seem to have the best luck with cars! Soon as that's done, though, I can focus on the beetle.

This guy is godsend, he is completely willing to help me work on the beetle and he knows what he's doing. Surprised

He was like "Yeah, the engine is a simple fix, but the car isn't even safe anymore." Along with the total chassis rust, the suspension on one side is going. Ever since I got her towed, she's been tilted. My list is eeenndless!
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Bob Brugge
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PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2015 9:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice Thread!

My advice for your door lock is a heavy application of Graphite powder. In my experience, anything else like wd-40 or even pb blaster will turn to gum.

I have stripped cars to the steel with a da sander. Another good option might be some water based paint stripper. If it doesn't eat the paint underneath, I bet you will find multiple colors as in replaced body parts.

For the rust... There is a marine type solvent. Turns rust into hard black stuff. Works great, clean the area, brush it on, and let it set. Can't remember the name.

Also in my experience, you are...no...ARE going to need to learn to work on your vee-dub. Take the plunge, pull the motor, and go nuts! My 70 has four wires, four bolts and voila, it plops out. I have to jack it way the hell up to get the motor out, but if I knew how to take the piece of sheet metal out between the back fenders above the exhaust, it would probably be a little easier.

Good luck and don't give up!
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